$30m Plan To Fix 'appalling' Alice Camps

The Sunday Age

Sunday May 7, 2006

RUSSELL SKELTON

ALICE SPRINGS town camps - notorious for their soaring crime rates, endemic poverty and domestic violence - will undergo a radical transformation with the announcement of a $30 million plan to improve conditions.

The plan, announced by Indigenous Affairs Minister Mal Brough, involves tough laws restricting the public consumption of alcohol and the construction of "dry" transit centres to accommodate indigenous people from remote communities.

Mr Brough said the plan, agreed to by the Northern Territory and the Alice Springs Council, aimed to normalise life in the 19 town camps for an estimated 2500 residents by lifting conditions to those of surrounding suburbs.

In stripping the indigenous Tangentyere Council of responsibility for administering the camps and handing it to the Alice Springs Council, Mr Brough said: "We are no longer prepared to feed the same processes which have failed."

The announcement of the plan follows reports in The Sunday Age on the appalling conditions in camps and the increase in violent deaths, assaults on women and sexual abuse of children.

Mr Brough said the proposed transit centres would be strictly administered. "There will be no alcohol, no drugs and children must attend school if they are there for two months. They will also pay rates."

Key features of the radical overhaul include:

? The allocation of $20 million to upgrade essential services such as power, garbage collection and sewerage, to be provided and maintained by the Alice Springs Council.

? Construction of transit camps, based on caravan park accommodation, that will be available to indigenous and non-indigenous visitors. The Federal Government will donate "portables" from the old Woomera refugee detention centre.

? A further injection of $10 million from the Northern Territory Government over two years to upgrade existing camp housing.

? Changes to alcohol consumption laws to prevent repeat offenders being "rewarded" for drunken behaviour with a "free night's accommodation and a free meal". Under planned changes, repeat offenders will receive counselling and work off fines in other ways.

But the changes have been criticised for not going far enough. Father Aseli Raass, a Catholic priest who attends many camps, said that liquor licences should be drastically reduced and public transport, postal services, street lighting and (in some camps) sewerage were needed.

"These appalling living conditions on the camps have led many people to despair and exposed children to risk . . . one must ask the question whether present and previous governments intended indigenous people to be marginalised and oppressed," Father Raass said.

Executive director of Tangentyere Council William Tilmouth welcomed the changes but said the Government should investigate more sustainable long-term accommodation.

© 2006 The Sunday Age

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